


Love in an Elevator

by c000kiesandcream



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Drabble, M/M, Meet-Cute, New York, Short, cos I'm British sorry not sorry, stuck in an elevator, which I occasionally call a lift
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-18 17:22:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11879241
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/c000kiesandcream/pseuds/c000kiesandcream
Summary: Victor gets stuck in an elevator with a cute stranger.





	Love in an Elevator

**Author's Note:**

> Ah I know it has been forever since I wrote (apologies) but have this very speedily written meet cute that I may use for something more at a later date also I am a sucker for these two and I haven't forgotten how much I love them both!
> 
> Enjoy ✨

"Hey, hold the-"

Victor didn't bother to look up from his phone as his left hand reached forward to push the hold button. He held it down, buying the stranger the few precious seconds it took him to reach the elevator.

Panting slightly, the same voice whispered, "thanks," and leaned back against the glass mirror wall. After closing his eyes for a moment to catch his breath, he reached into his pocket for his own phone. Victor took this opportunity to catch a glance of who he had waited for.

A mess of dark hair sat atop the man's head as though he had just rolled out of bed. Brilliant blue frames outlined his dark eyes, the lights in the elevator catching so that Victor couldn't quite see past the lenses. He noted, though, that this stranger's lashes were long enough so that as he glanced down at his screen they brushed the glass. He was cute, but Victor made sure to return his gaze to his own phone, out of fear that the stranger would notice his stare.

Luckily for Victor, his companion was oblivious. The first thirty seconds of their journey to the bottom floor was completely silent.

Suddenly, the lift jolted them both forward. The box jumped again, trying to lower itself, before grinding noisily to a halt. The cables screamed against the strain.

And just like that, the machine was silent.

The lights flickered, before dying completely, and the emergency generator kicked in, whirring gently until soft light refilled the elevator.

They both stood still, looking at each other but not really seeing. Despite the situation, Victor couldn't help but notice that  _of course_  his eyes were brown. Something in them made him hesitate for a moment, but he snapped out of it long enough to gingerly position himself in front of the keypad. The stranger watched as his slender finger pushed the little microphone button, and the intercom buzzed into life. They waited what felt like a few minutes before a voice on the other end spoke.

 _"Hello, you've reached Almavivo Elevator Operatives, how may I be of service?"_ The feminine voice was cheerful and polite, and Victor tried his best to reciprocate.

"Hello, yes, we're on the corner of 82nd and Park, and we're stuck between the 13th and 14th floor." Victor's voice rang clear as he spoke, making sure she could understand him.

 _"Oh my, well, let's have a look, see if we can get an engineer out to you,"_ she replied, her cheerful tone faltering slightly as the mechanical clicking of computer keys filled the silence.

Victor glanced sideways, earning a shrug from his companion.

_"Oh, yes, I see you now. Unfortunately, our engineers are out on scheduled calls all morning. The earliest I can book you in is 12:30-"_

"Half 12? That's four hours from now," Victor sighed, pressing his forefinger to his temple. "I have an important meeting that I  _need-_ "

 _"I've pushed you to the top of the list as an emergency call out, but it can still take a couple of hours for an engineer to reach you_ _. I am really sorry, there is nothing more that I can do_ _."_

A click followed her voice, and she was gone.

"Fantastic," Victor muttered to himself, leaning forward and resting his head against the cool panelling above the keypad. He sighed again, before turning to the stranger. "Looks like we're stuck," he laughed.

"Yeah," the other man replied, laughing to himself. He watched as Victor's expression softened, and he held his hand out in front of him.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing. Just wishing I had eaten breakfast," he replied. As if on cue, his stomach rumbled beneath his woolen jumper. Victor laughed, and slipped a hand into his satchel to recover the protein bar he usually ate with his coffee on the way into the office; the other man accepted it gratefully.

For a while, the two men stood in silence, unsure of what to do with this new situation. Victor couldn't help but glance up at his companion, and watch the way the light caught the rim of his glasses, shielding his eyes, or how his hair fell forward while he scrolled through whatever on his phone. His clothes were fairly casual, so it was evident that he wasn't one of the standard high-powered business men that usually haunted the building. Off-white shirt collars popped out from beneath a thick, brown wool, on top of which he'd shoved on a navy parka jacket. His jeans were ill-fitting and inappropriate for an office, along with the scuffed trainers with the laces tied into triple knots. 

All this information was gathered over the course of a few minutes, with a series of pretty obvious, trying-to-be-casual-and-failing glances that did not go unnoticed. The shorter man, using the fluorescent lights to his advantage, watched as the business man surveyed him.

It took all his willpower not to flush every time the light blue eyes accidentally caught his, but at least he didn't have to work to control his heart rate. That would never show.

The first twenty minutes passed that way - the two men standing, pretending not to look at each other, and draining their phone batteries.

Then, Victor's phone rang.

The other man watched as Victor nearly physically jumped in shock, and again as his facial expression changed.

"It's the office," he said, to no one in particular, and clicked to answer the call.

"Mila, hello, you really should be checking your emails  _before_ you get your coffee. Mhmm," he nodded as he spoke. "Yes, well, now you know why I was not there to collect my coffee from you. No. No, that's fine, I've sent him an email too. I know, Mr Feltsman  _is_ rather impatient, but there's literally nothing I can do," here he pressed the bridge of his nose with his fingertips. "There is nothing I can do, I'm stuck in an elevator. I'll be there when I can." Then, he hung up, but not before he muttered what sounded like a curse in a foreign language.

"Oh, you're Russian," the other man offered, smiling to himself. "I  _knew_ I recognised your accent."

Victor nodded, and his expression softened as he held out his hand.

"Victor Nikiforov."

"As in,  _the_ Victor Nikiforov?" The stranger's brown eyes grew wide as he realised who he was with. Soft pink dusted Victor's cheek with the recognition.

"You know who I am?" Victor laughed. 

"Of course, you're the youngest architect to have a skyscraper built in New York City. I adore your work," the man gushed in response.

"Ah, of course. And you are?" Victor cocked an eyebrow, before laughing at the deep flush filling the stranger's cheeks.

"Sorry, I'm Yuuri. Yuuri Katsuki-"

"Of Katsuki & Son? You have some pretty impressive work yourself." Victor couldn't help the fact his voice dripped with approval. Nor could he help the fact that he was still holding Yuuri's hand. Yuuri was the first to let go (to Victor's disappointment), and his shoulders relaxed slightly as they separated.

"My father actually runs the company. I've started working there alongside my studies," Yuuri replied, shrugging.

"I see. Well, it looks like we have a lot we can talk about," Victor slipped his jacket off as he spoke, flaring it out on the floor as a makeshift mat. 

Yuuri followed suit, pulling his rain coat off and laying it flat. 

As the morning passed, the two men grew comfortable around each other. They spoke about their respective careers, Yuuri's in its early stages, Victor's running full steam ahead with no signs of slowing. They discussed and swapped contacts that may prove useful for further endeavours, syncing calendars for particular networking events, and even comparing sketchbooks. Victor's was full of grand designs for gorgeous skyscrapers to stand against the Manhattan skyline, while Yuuri's was much more stylised. He had worked extensively on creating realistic backdrops for his sketches, and while there was a beauty in Victor's clean-cut line drawings, there was something about the depth of Yuuri's work that inspired the older architect.

Talk eventually turned to family; Yuuri spoke faster than Victor about how his family had emigrated from a sleepy seaside town in Japan to New York when his father was offered a job at an up and coming architecture firm. Yuuri was barely old enough to remember, but he told Victor of the summers he had spent in Japan, how he had learned two languages growing up, and how he had always secretly wanted to return to Japan to work in the seaside town where his parents had grown up.

For Victor, family meant one thing: his beloved Makkachin.

When Victor showed Yuuri a photo, the younger man visibly melted. Victor smiled proudly, watching as Yuuri swiped through his phone to see more pictures of his pride and joy.

"She is just the  _cutest_! I've always loved poodles," Yuuri beamed as he handed the phone back.

"She's beautiful, and she's so well behaved. You  _have_ to come and meet her sometime," Victor replied, distracted by another email that had popped up.

Yuuri blinked, wondering how his and Victor's world's would reconnect outside of the broken-down elevator. While suspended between two floors in a tin can, they had no choice but to get along.

But there was something about the way his eyes softened when he looked directly at Yuuri, how he maintained eyecontact long after Yuuri had glanced away, how he had leaned closer and closer as time had passed and conversation had turned personal. Yuuri couldn't help his face colouring slightly at the casual invitation to meet the dog that Victor called family, and he wondered when he had decided he had a  _major_ crush on this complete stranger.

Victor finished his email just in time for his phone to ring again.

"Excuse me," he apologised, before turning to his handset.

"Mila, hello again. No, I'm still stuck. Yes, I am with someone else. Yes, he is. I don't know, I'm assuming so, but I've only just met him. He's an architect. Yes. No. No, of course not. Put Feltsman on the phone. Ah, dasvidaniya," Victor's tone changed as he slipped effortlessly into Russian. Yuuri watched in awe as Victor spoke about god knows what to who he assumed was Feltsman. He tried not to stare but he couldn't help himself. Victor's voice had taken on a smooth, charming quality, and from the aggitated barking from the other end of the phone, it wasn't working on its intended audience.

Suddenly, the lights flickered back into life. Yuuri stood up, and Victor ended his call.

It was Victor who again approached the little intercom on the wall, and again the same cheerful woman beamed out of the speaker.

"Hello again," Victor's English still held the charm of his Russian, and Yuuri tried not to show that it was having an effect on him.

_"Hi, you should have power again. You'll be back and moving in about 10 minutes. I am sorry for any inconvenience."_

"Oh, don't worry about it," Victor glanced at Yuuri as he spoke, who was still trying to control the colour in his cheeks.

_"If you have any questions, the engineer will be able to help you out. Have a nice day!"_

"Thank you, you too," Victor replied, before the speaker clicked off.

"Despite myself, I think it's a shame we aren't stuck in here for the rest of the afternoon. I've enjoyed talking to you, Yuuri," Victor's voice dropped an octave as he leaned closer to Yuuri.

"So have I," Yuuri nodded, leaning down to grab their jackets.

The elevator jolted, and started slowly clibming down. They watched as the numbers dropped, one by one, until they reached the bottom floor.

"Well, this is me," Yuuri laughed, walking towards the door. Victor reached out and grabbed his arm.

"Wait-"

Yuuri turned, heart pounding beneath his jumper.

"We didn't exchange numbers," Victor thrust his phone into Yuuri's hand. Yuuri handed his over too.

"Maybe we can catch up next week? Over coffee?"

"I'll make sure to take the stairs next time," Yuuri laughed.

When they had exchanged details, it was time to part. Yuuri held his hand out to shake Victor's hand, as they had done when they met.

Victor took it, before glancing at his watch. "We should go."

"Yeah, we should."

They walked together out of the revolving doors, before turning in opposite directions and walking to their respective destinations, both wondering how they could have been so lucky to be stuck in an elevator all morning with the most charming, most handsome man in New York City.

 


End file.
